On Eagle’s Wings

March 6, 2018

In the Bible reading plan many of us at Park church are following, today’s reading included a summary of the various places the children of Israel camped as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. In itself, it’s not exactly the kind of reading that strikes me as inspiring and life-changing. But combine it with my personal daily reading from “Our Daily Light,” and I have something that speaks loud and clear.

Deuteronomy 32:10-12 reads as follows: the LORD’s portion is his people,“He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,

that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its 

pinions, the LORD alone guided him.”

I’m no expert on eagles, but I have been told that when the adult eagle is teaching its fledglings to fly, it pushes them out of the nest, and as they fall, swoops down underneath the young birds, actually catching them on the adult’s back, diving to let the young attempt to fly, and catching them again. The fledgling learns from trying and failing, but always being saved by the parent.

When God leads us, he doesn’t take us by the nose so it becomes impossible to make a mistake. He pushes us out of the nest, catches us, lets us spread our wings, and catches us again. God pushed Israel out of the nest of Egypt, coaxed them to spread their wings, and picked them up time after time when they failed. The record of Israel’s campsites is sad testimony to the many times they failed. But their entry into the Promised Land is testimony to the faithfulness of God, who alone guided them. He does the same today. We repeatedly flap our spiritual wings, and sooner or later, find ourselves in a free fall, often terrified that we’ll hit the ground with a big splat. But God swoops down, breaks our fall, and says, “try again.” And the day will come when we climb one last mountain and see our Promised Land spread out before us. It is worth giving thanks for God’s repeated faithfulness after he has pushed us out of our nests of familiarity and comfort.